Know Jesus/Know Peace

Robert Griffin 3rd is an incredible NFL quarterback – except for the fact that he’s a bit injury prone. But what’s most interesting about RG3 is that he’s also a devout Christian. In a day and age where Christianity is all but completely silenced, it’s refreshing to see such a bold witness for Jesus.

In a recent press conference after his game against the Jacksonville Jaguars where he dislocated his ankle, RG3 was wearing a t-shirt that said, “Know Jesus/Know Peace, No Jesus/No Peace.” But he turned it inside out before the press conference because any shirt with a logo on it is against league policy. I get that – the NFL would be a walking billboard for advertisers if they didn’t have such a policy in place. Yet what I find interesting is that the very message on his t-shirt is the only answer the NFL and our nation need right now.

The NFL has been all over the news lately with several players engaged in seriously troubling domestic violence cases. There has been no peace for the NFL – not for the players, not for the commissioner, and not for the fans. It’s been a pretty disturbing few weeks for the NFL, yet RG3’s t-shirt carried a statement that would turn things around.

I tweeted last week: “There’s not a police force big enough to make a man do what is right. But there is a King, named Jesus, who changes men from the inside out.” This is true – it’s true for me and millions of other men who have experienced the peace of God in our hearts, which has changed us from the inside out. This is the message the NFL needs today. Yet in an interestingly prophetic way – that message has been turned inside out.

“They have turned their back to Me and not their face, though I taught them, teaching them again and again, they would not listen and receive instruction,” Jeremiah 32:33. What is happening in the NFL is simply a picture of what is happening in our nation. We aren’t interested in knowing Jesus any longer, so we’ve elected leaders that reject Him and His ways. As a result, we are reaping the consequences of God’s hedge of protection and blessing having been removed. So the question is today – will we as Christians just turn our shirts inside out, or will we boldly speak the only message that can bring healing and peace to a lost and dying world?